Hey all,
I was just offered a really cool visual designer role. It’s a great opportunity for me to learn more and do more of what I like to do.
The salary offered was lower than my current salary, so I politely mentioned this when I was called about the offer.
My potential manager did not seem mad at all about this and quickly discussed it with the other partners. Within two hours I had a revised offer letter with a 15% higher salary, and they still sound very enthusiastic.
For some reason, because I am not used to negotiating/talking money, I still think this may sour an employers impression of you. Do any of you have experience with this? Think it’s just part of doing business?
Don’t worry about it, if they didn’t want to make the offer, they would have said take it or leave it about the original offer.
It’s definitely fine. Any firm that doesn’t expect negotiations on a professional position is insane. If they didn’t feel you were worth it, they’d stay firm on the offer and look to other applicants if you turned it down; the fact that they didn’t and offered so much more on the second offer means they didn’t give you a great offer to begin with and were expecting you to negotiate. Or, well, to be kind of a sucker.
I always negotiate. Without fail I have gotten reasonable concessions of some kind. Heck, I’ve even negotiated when coming back to work for the same company again – it’s weird to negotiate with someone thinking, I’ve been in your house, I’ve met your kids… 
It’s just how the game is played. It’s like buying a house - you don’t usually get the list price, and the seller doesn’t usually accept your first offer. Anyone huffypants enough to be insulted by negotiations where negotiations are expected is someone you wouldn’t want to deal with. Let alone work with.
Makes sense, thanks for the advice guys